The storm of last century...

So the last time I posted, on Tara's birthday of all things, I wrote about funny Brits. So now a tale by a rather serious American. I've written about other Erik Larosn books (Thunderstruck and The Devil in the White City), so perhaps it should not be suprising that I'm now blathering on about another of his books.



Isaac's Storm tells the tale of Isaac Cline, a forecaster with the Weather Bureau and the hurricane that came to bear hs name. The abridged version goes thusly... in 1900 Galveston, Texas was a bustling metropolitan town fighting their nearby neighbor Houston for supremacy among Gulf (or near Gulf) cities. A developing hurricane blows across Cuba and the weather service completely drops the ball on guessing where it will go next. A few days later (Sept. 8 to be exact) the hurricane blows into Galveston and wipes it off the map along with most of the inhabitants. The tragedy unfolds over most of the book; before, during and after the hurricane there were a million minor players that were destroyed by this "act of God". If there is one fault with this book it's that the million people are all characters in the book causing it to be a bit meandering at times.

Overall, however, the book is a wonderful if disturbing portrait of turn of the century meteorology.